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Give North your books

At his request &ndash; almost a royal order &ndash; children peeled off their socks so the Queen's representative could give them a good strong sniff.

By Louise BrownEducation Reporter

Mon., Jan. 15, 2007

At his request – almost a royal order – children peeled off their socks so the Queen's representative could give them a good strong sniff.

"Hmm. They are a bit smelly," pronounced Ontario Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman, to squeals from the students sitting before him at Toronto's First Nations School, where he was about to read them a picture book called, Smelly Socks.

Bartleman was here in this east-end public school Friday to launch his latest blitz for donated books meant to nurture a love of reading among native children across Canada's north. He believes books can help children overcome poverty by fighting the despair linked to staggering suicide rates among children as young as 12.

In the wake of his wildly successful million-book drive of 2004, Bartleman has kicked off an even broader call for books for Canada's native children. This time they will go not just to the struggling school libraries of Ontario's northern reserves, but to Cree children of northern Quebec and the Inuit of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

"In Nunavut, schools don't start teaching children in English until Grade 4, which is really past the optimum age for learning a language and developing a love of reading, so we need to provide English books for these children," said Bartleman, whose mother is Ojibwa.

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"Too many native children do not know how to read and, without books, children will never develop the self-esteem that comes from an education, and will never escape the despair that fuels the suicide epidemic."

Bartleman is arguably the most outspoken vice-regal officer in the country with his blunt talk about native suicide, bold fund-raising for remote reserves and candid plea for understanding of people like him who suffer from depression.

Inuit singer Susan Aglukark visited the school with Bartleman to join the call for books, telling the children, "We all have dreams, and the thing that will get you to your dream is reading."

Bartleman is asking the public to donate gently used books for children up to Grade 8; good quality picture books, chapter books or fiction for young adults. Donations can be taken to any police station before Jan. 31. From there, they will be gathered up by the Canadian Forces and shipped north by truck, ice-road and airplane. There is no need for encyclopedias, textbooks or National Geographic magazines, of which enough were donated last time.

This book drive ends Jan. 31.

As several bare toes wiggled on the carpet, Bartleman began reading the Robert Munsch tale of a girl who refuses to take off her favourite socks to be washed. He then passed the book – and socks – to a series of dignitaries including Aglukark, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and officials from the army and the OPP, who each took a sniff of the socks before reading – to howls from the young crowd.

At the end of the reading, Bartleman returned the socks to their young owners and donated Smelly Socks and cartons of other books to the fledgling school library at First Nations School, a special public program for aboriginal students based in Dundas Junior Public School near Dundas St. and Broadview Ave.

This is likely the final call for donations that Bartleman will make before his term runs out this year.

Books for children up to Grade 8 can be dropped at any one of Toronto's 17 police stations at any time of day or night, or to any Ontario Provincial Police detachment during business hours. Deadline is Jan. 31.

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